Wojtulanis, Stefania Cecylia (W.29)

W.29	First Officer	Stefania Cecylia 'Barbara' Wojtulanis
	b. 22 Nov 1912, Warsaw Poland	1 Jan 1941 to 4 May 1945

stefania wojtulanis 1941 RAeC 1941

with thanks to Krzysztof Kubala

Father: Marcin Wojtulanis, Mother: Maria [Gawarkiewicz]

Ed. College of Tugeuers, Warsaw

prev: Student of Engineering

F.A.I. (Polish) Certificate 467

prev exp: 245 hrs in Womens Section of Polish Air Force on RWD-8, RWD-5, RWD-13, RWD-17, RWD-10

RWD-8 Trainer

Fled to the UK via Romania and France

Address in 1941: 30 Nottingham Place, London W1

Postings: 15FPP, 5TFPP, 6FPP, 1FPP

Passed her Royal Aero Club Certificate at Hatfield on a Tiger Moth, 30 Jan 1941

Class III pilot

1942 caricature by 'Sammy' Clayton

Off sick from 2 to 29 Jun 1942 with 'Quinckes Disease' [basically, acute throat discomfort and gagging], and from 3 to 14 Mar with influenza

5 accidents, 3 her fault:

- 22 Nov 1941, her Spitfire AB175 tipped on its nose after she 'mishandled the brakes'

- 26 Jan 1942, a bad landing in Spitfire W3607 in gusty conditions led to the starboard wing touching the ground and straining the undercarriage

- 31 Oct 1942, a forced landing in Spitfire I AR229 after 'ignition defects'

- 6 Mar 1944, a wheels-up landing in a Spitfire after an undercarriage fault

- 10 Apr 1945, her Dominie I NR798 nosed over on landing after she misjudged the approach, landed too fast mid-runway, and had to brake sharply

"A keen worker and good officer. Appears rather temperamental"

"I have now decided that she has reached the limit of her ability and it would be unsafe and unfair to categorise her on Class IV"

m. Apr 1946 in London, General Stanisław Karpiński Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Air Force, serving with the RAF in WWII

They moved to the USA in 1958. Stephanie studied mathematics and computer programming at Los Angeles City College: "We are happy to report that Mrs Stephanie Karpinski, wife of the World War II chief of the Polish Air Force, has found a position as a junior programmer with the Burbank branch of Librascope, a division of General Precision, Inc." - The Los Angeles Times, 22 Jan 1961

US Citizenship 17 Sep 1963